In 2014, the Miistakis Institute hosted a Citizen Science Conference, exploring this diverse field with sessions on program design, evaluation, policy implications, technology and applications in parks and protected areas. This links to the website that chronicled that event.
Bradley Peter
Community Based Monitoring of Alberta’s Lake Ecosystems
Speaker Bio: Bradley Peter is the Executive Director of the Alberta Lake Management Society. Bradley has spent 8 years working on community based monitoring projects including projects monitoring for water chemistry, aquatic invasive species, and aquatic plants.
Presentation: Community-based Monitoring of Alberta’s Lake Ecosystems
The Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS) is a non-profit, charitable organization which was founded in 1991. One of ALMS’ main programs, the LakeWatch program, is a volunteer-based lake water quality monitoring program which has monitored over 100 unique lakes throughout Alberta. Rather than train citizen scientists to complete the monitoring independently, nearly all LakeWatch data is collected by trained staff working alongside citizen scientists. While this model allows for the collection of highly technical data, it can also act as a limitation in terms of capacity (number of lakes) and reach (geographical range of lakes). To improve on this model, ALMS introduced a new LakeKeepers program which equips citizen scientists to generate data independently of ALMS staff. ALMS programs have benefited from partnerships with the Provincial government and have empowered stewards to use environmental data for lake management The successes and limitations of ALMS’ monitoring programs will be explored in this presentation.